Few voices for policyholder pursuits and their rights have remained as constant, credible, and compassionate as Amy Bach and her staff at United Policyholders. I spent yesterday afternoon in Sonoma, California, talking with Amy, quite a lot of her present and former skilled employees members, volunteers who’ve labored the Maui and Los Angeles wildfires, and members of her very beginner storage band. Amy Bach sings whereas taking part in the drums.
Because the founder and Government Director of United Policyholders (UP), Amy has spent over three a long time constructing a nonprofit that has turn out to be a go-to useful resource for insurance coverage policyholders navigating steps of restoration within the aftermath of disaster. I had the pleasure of introducing her for an award again in 2017, which I famous in Amy Bach Honored by the Florida Affiliation for Insurance coverage Reform.
After spending the afternoon along with her and her staff of employees, pals, and volunteers, I was reminded of simply how important her management has been.
From the lethal wildfires that scorched Northern California in 2017 to the heart-wrenching devastation in Maui in 2023—and now, the 2025 fires throughout Los Angeles—Amy and her staff have persistently proven up, not simply in phrases, however in motion.
A Decade of Motion: From Santa Rosa to Lahaina to Los Angeles
Within the wake of the 2017 Tubbs Fireplace and later the 2018 Camp Fireplace, United Policyholders mobilized shortly with their Roadmap to Restoration® program, providing workshops, clinics, and one-on-one assist to information survivors by the complicated claims course of. This initiative, now deployed after just about each main U.S. wildfire, has helped 1000’s of households perceive their insurance coverage insurance policies, keep away from frequent pitfalls, and safe truthful compensation from insurers.
UP launched the Wildfire Threat Discount and Asset Safety (WRAP) Initiative. This can be a proactive effort to teach householders on wildfire mitigation whereas advocating for insurance coverage incentives for individuals who harden their houses. In partnership with the Governor’s Workplace of Emergency Companies and the California Division of Insurance coverage, WRAP has been instrumental in shaping state-level insurance policies to carry insurers again into high-risk areas and make insurance coverage each out there and inexpensive.
After the 2023 wildfires in Maui, UP didn’t hesitate. They quickly printed a Hawaii-specific restoration information, held clinics in Lahaina with prior fireplace sufferer volunteers, and advocated towards insurers clawing again authorized settlements from victims. Amy co-authored a strong op-ed urging insurance coverage firms to step again and let fireplace survivors rebuild with dignity—incomes reward for as soon as once more placing folks earlier than earnings. UP’s amicus program helped within the combat to prioritize Hawaiian victims’ losses earlier than insurer subrogation pursuits.
This yr, as fires tore by Los Angeles—together with the Palisades and Eaton Fires—UP was there but once more. This time, the stakes have been larger attributable to widespread studies of lead and poisonous contamination, which insurers have been reluctant to cowl. Amy and her staff supported grassroots efforts to assemble contamination information, amplified public well being issues, and ensured survivors had the steering and advocacy they wanted—whether or not in navigating coverage language or combating unjust denials.
Coverage Change By way of Persistence
United Policyholders isn’t only a assist group—it’s a pressure for authorized and legislative change. After the 2017 and 2018 California wildfires, Amy Bach helped form a package deal of pro-policyholder reforms. Due to her efforts, California now ensures prolonged residing expense advantages (as much as 36 months), permits policyholders to mix limits from completely different protection classes, and protects catastrophe victims from shedding protection once they want it most. These legal guidelines didn’t go themselves. They handed as a result of Amy and UP fought for them.
Comparable efforts have adopted in Hawaii, the place UP urged officers to undertake California’s requirements. In each states, United Policyholders has stepped in because the voice for individuals who’ve misplaced every thing, making certain that insurance coverage doesn’t turn out to be the second catastrophe after the hearth.
Listed here are a number of of the subjects we mentioned yesterday:
- How the findings of lead and heavy metals are going to affect policyholders, communities, and insurance coverage firms. There’s a actual concern that many will likely be afraid to rebuild or reside within the current fire-damaged areas absent higher scientific proof that these poisonous substances haven’t been eliminated
- How Proposition 103 has been working and never working within the new age of wildfires.
- Issues over insurers leaving California for extra worthwhile venues with much less stringent regulation versus being within the largest state insurance coverage market in America.
- State Farm—the current charge listening to, its claims practices and its giant market share of enterprise in California.
- The affect and significance of volunteers who’ve suffered and been by the devastation serving to those that simply suffered an analogous destiny.
- Insurance coverage affordability, Fannie Mae alternative value necessities and residential possession affordability.
- Whether or not California ought to undertake a distinct working methodology than the California Honest Plan and the way different states function insurers of final resort.
Some insurance coverage firm commentators suppose that each one policyholders do is bash the insurance coverage trade. These discussions have been about easy methods to assist the insurance coverage product and assist assist the insurance coverage system in order that policyholders are higher served and guarded. Being pro-policyholder doesn’t imply being anti-insurer.
Why United Policyholders Deserves Our Help
Amy Bach and United Policyholders have stood the take a look at of time for over thirty years—not simply due to what they do, however due to how they do it. They present up, they hear, they educate, they combat, and they’re revered. Their work is rooted in compassion however pushed by deep authorized and sensible information of how insurance coverage works (and the way it typically doesn’t).
They don’t chase headlines. They chase outcomes.
Their affect is seen in each catastrophe zone they enter. Survivors go away UP occasions not solely with brochures and pattern letters however with hope. With confidence. With readability.
They’ve elevated the rights of policyholders throughout the nation and set an ordinary for what nonprofit advocacy with outcomes ought to seem like.
So, for those who’re seeking to give again—to strengthen the spine of policyholder advocacy in insurance coverage—supporting United Policyholders is a good selection.
Thought For The Day
“When catastrophe strikes, insurance coverage is meant to be the security web. However too typically, the online has holes. Our mission is to verify it holds.”
—Amy Bach
Tune of The Day
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay
